The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths
In 1967, a struggling young artist hung this neon sign in the window of his storefront studio on a shopping street in San Francisco.
For decades this piece has been a beacon for me: a constant reminder of the rare and transformative potential I seek through engagement with art.
Bruce Nauman (b. 1941), The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign) (1967), a seminal editioned work in the collection of several important museums, including the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands.
The overwhelming majority of art we encounter on a day-to-day doesn't approach this standard, nor does it have to. Charting Transcendence is dedicated to finding the work that does.
In this art advisory’s view, artists are not merely creators; they are seers and shamans who facilitate new ways of seeing the world.
Their art doesn't just hang on your wall: it serves as a poral to a deeper understanding of mystic truths.
This is why a passionate, disciplined advisory practice is essential to guide those seeking transcendent art experiences.
The ability to recognize this quality is a deep practice, honed through relentless looking, critical thinking, and an ever-evolving conversation with art history and the contemporary moment.
Charting Transcendence dedicates an extraordinary attention to seeking out rare, electrifying encounters with mystic creation, ensuring that the art you live with doesn't just fill space — it expands your entire universe of meaning and understanding.
A September Surprise
Complex visual counterpoint reveals itself in Threads No. 40 (2025), 72” x 48”, pencil, colored pencil, thread on wood, by Tia Keobounpheng (b. 1977) showing September 4-7, 2025 at The Armory Show with Weinstein Hammons Gallery.
There’s something special about September and the nostalgic back-to-school anxiety that I’ve felt about it from a young age.
Fortunately, lately I get to call my own shots as an art advisor with a network of artists, professionals and collectors with whom I can co-create meaning, passion, wonder and awe.
The week after Labor Day kicks off the fall art market season with New York City hosting its venerable Armory Show, the city’s premier contemporary fair of the year.
September also marks the beginning of the art market’s most intensive stretch building towards the undeniable peak of the art market’s year in early December: Art Basel Miami Beach, hosted in CT’s hometown — The Magic City.
Charting Transcendence has a few spots of availability for new clients curious about what the New York, South Florida, California and Texas art markets offer between now and the end of 2025.
An Abundant Array of Art Everywhere We Go
Formal and conceptual explorations of art that reveals mystic truths are engrained in the sacred geometry of our existence.
Recent tours conducted by Charting Transcendence with both the curious as well as the initiated in Texas and Florida are proof of the abundantly generative spiral of color and beauty that endlessly inspires us.
Austin (2015), a masterwork by one of the most important American artists of the twentieth century, Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015), takes the form of a minimalist chapel upon the grounds of the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin.
Further evidence of the productivity of contemporary fiber is this three-dimensional textile, cotton and mohair artwork by Savannah College of Art and Design graduate Anya Molviatis (b. 1994), represented by Austin’s Ivester Contemporary.
Phillip Niemeyer, owner of Austin’s Northern-Southern gallery, is a typographic artist who made this poster Words for Love (2025) highlighting words forbidden from use in government documents by the present administration in Washington.
A ceramic and hand-braided synthetic hair sculpture by Baltimore-based artist Murjoni Merriwether (b. 1994) in the collection of the Rubell Museum in Miami.
Offering to the Adi-Buddha, Amoghassiddha, (1966-67), a Buddhist-inspired geometrically abstract painting by the once overlooked woman artist Charmion von Wiegand (1896-1983), in the collection of the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin.
